DCAU #303: Like a Bat Outta Gotham

IN THIS ONE... Man-Bat is made to commit crimes to save his wife's life.

CREDITS: Written by Scott Peterson; art by Craig Rousseau and Terry Beatty.

REVIEW: There's an interesting ironic twist to this story. Kirk Langstrom is told his wife is sick by an unscrupulous scientist who want him to steal other labs' research, but as Man-Bat, he doesn't have the mental faculties to return with the goods and merely trashes the place. So the villain can't get what he wants, and the Bats eventually catch up with him, spill the beans, and get Kirk on their side. I like that he goes savage on the man who abused him WITHOUT being Man-Bat.

Otherwise, it's your standard reformed villain forced back into the life by worse people than him, but Batman and Batgirl are a great team in both detective work and fighting. They follow the clues to their conclusion, and Batman gets a badass moment at the very end, a bullet grazing his shoulder when the bad guy doubles down on the situation with a gun.

Peterson sneaks in some comedy as well, just not much of it. There's the lab assistant who reacts to Batman's vanishing act with a punch line, and Batgirl's naughty comment in the final panel. But there's really nothing exciting about the action beats or plot structure.